


Human After All

by Fantismal



Series: New ERA [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Asshole Gavin Reed, Captain Fowler being a BOSS, Connor heaping hot coals, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, actions have consequences, but in the previous one, getting taught a lesson, not so asshole in this story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 23:05:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15302016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantismal/pseuds/Fantismal
Summary: Set during Chapter 26 of Sacrificial Lamb and holding a TON of spoilers for that story:Connor has turned his memories of his time in CyberLife over to the DPD. Reed has a lot of explaining to do. Fowler is furious.





	Human After All

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated to the lovely kao. They have been plying me with beautiful fanart from Sacrificial Lamb all this time, and their recreations of Chapter 8 of Sacrificial Lamb especially have earned them this Gavin one-shot.

“Gavin.” Fowler stepped out of his office just as Gavin dropped his bag on his desk. “My office. Now.”

Gavin frowned, but he left his desk and followed the captain inside.

“Sit.” Fowler touched a control to fog the windows for privacy. Gavin took a seat across from him. What the hell could this be about?

“You know what Hank and Ben are doing in that big meeting room with Connor every day, Gavin?”

“They’re going through his memories to figure out if there were any data leaks.” Gavin had been removed from the CyberLife case when it merged with the assassination case and plastic fucking Connor became the star witness.

“Yes, Gavin. They’re going through his memories.” Fowler opened a folder and drew out some photos, slapping them down in front of him. “ _All_ of them.”

Some of the photos were of Gavin himself, seen from Connor’s eyes. There was an odd overlay on most of them, something about a Freeze routine. Warning and error messages dotted the edges. The vision went blurred and staticky after a couple shots. Near the end were images of Gavin with his gun in Connor’s mouth, half-laughing, half-revolted, and of Gavin opening the door while Connor reached for him. The final shot was not one Gavin remembered at all, but Connor was looking at the one-way glass mirror in that room, blue bruises littering his naked skin, half his face caved in.

Gavin found it very hard to breathe.

“I should demand your badge,” Fowler said, his voice low and angry. “This is disgusting. These stills were taken from the video, but rest assured, I watched the video. I heard what you said to him. What you made him do. But you know what?”

Gavin barely managed to look up at Fowler.

“I can’t. Do you know _why_?”

Gavin shook his head.

Fowler tapped the photo of Gavin’s gun in Connor’s mouth. “Because the kid fucking vouched for you. He sat across from me and spun me a web of technobabble and bold-faced lies about how this was all put on for CyberLife’s benefit so you could feed him the transmitter Markus used to keep him sane. He assured me that you beating an innocent young man to a bloody pulp, purposely humiliating him, and then turning him over to a fucking _psychopath_ hell bent on sodomizing him was _for his own good!_ ”

Gavin’s jaw had dropped open as he stared at Fowler. “What the _hell_?”

“We all knew it was bullshit, Gavin, but the kid didn’t so much as flinch, not even when Hank pulled him aside to talk to him privately. According to Connor, you kept him alive and should not lose your badge over this.” Fowler sat back in his chair, crossing his arms across his chest.

Gavin’s gaze dropped to the photos. A horrible sense of guilt was crawling up from his gut. He picked up the last picture to look at it more closely. There were bruises around his neck that Gavin hadn’t put there. Someone had been strangling the android even though it didn’t need to breathe. Gavin knew Connor’s head hadn’t been _smashed in_ when he left either. He’d felt the faceplate break, but it was still largely face-shaped, even if it had been poking into his eye. Cunningham had been left to “clean up” Connor, and Gavin…

Gavin had known what Cunningham had actually _meant_. The man had been a slimy son of a bitch from the start, and he had given extra emphasis to the Eden routine when going through the codewords Connor would respond to now. Gavin hadn’t been about to strip down and fuck a robot in front of that man, but he _had_ made Connor strip down and then left him helpless. He had deliberately ignored what was probably going to happen to the android. Connor wasn’t human. Why did he matter?

There was open despair on Connor’s smashed face, a shattered look of horror. Machines didn’t feel like that. They didn’t feel at all.

And despite the beating, the gunplay, the humiliation, and the being left to be raped by a sweaty jackass… Connor had still defended Gavin and saved his job.

“Why the hell would he protect _me_? He hates me!” Yep, that was definitely guilt filling his entire body.

“Because that’s the android way. Turn the other cheek. Be the better man. Those _machines_ are doing a better job at basic humanity than we humans have been.”

Gavin swallowed, setting the picture down. “What… what’re you gonna do about this?”

“I want a confession. You beat this kid up. Why?”

“...because I could.”

“Abuse of power.”

“It’s not…” Gavin shut his mouth and looked aside, trying to figure out what the hell he’d been thinking all those months where he hated Connor to his little plastic core. “He’s a better detective than all of us on the first day he walked off the assembly line. How the hell can a human compete with a mobile crime lab? I didn’t want to be replaced by a hunk of plastic. But he just kept being too damn _good,_ and I… I hated him for it.”

“So CyberLife lets you use him as a punching bag.”

Gavin flexed his fingers and nodded. “It… felt good at the time. But then I said the sexbot thing and it was just… the longer it went on, the more weird it became. It wasn’t… the thing crawling around and begging for my dick wasn’t the plastic detective I hated, so I bailed.”

“Did you know what Cunningham was going to do as soon as you left?”

“Had a pretty good idea. Didn’t think about it. Didn’t want to. He was just a robot, what did it matter?”

“And you did it again. Here. With Hank around.”

Gavin nodded, staring miserably at his hand. “I… CyberLife was chewing out my ass for not getting their prototype back, and I saw him come in with Hank and just… I don’t know. I thought it would be funny? I thought it would freak Hank out, make him less defensive so I could just throw Connor back to CyberLife and get them off my back.”

“Connor should have let me throw the whole damn book at you,” Fowler said. “Hell, all he had to do was say _nothing_ and you’d be out on your ass. You _know_ how fucked up this is!”

 _He’s just a machine!_ Gavin couldn’t say. The words died in his throat as he stared into Connor’ broken face.

“This is your last chance, Gavin.” Fowler’s voice was cold. “I don’t give a fuck how thin your disciplinary file is. This? This is _wrong_.” He jabbed his finger at the photos. “You are not gonna go anywhere within fifty feet of Connor until this whole shitshow is over. I’m gonna hire him in as the first android detective, if he wants it, because he _is_ the best damn detective I’ve ever seen, even without his crime lab wizardry. You are gonna keep your distance and your professionalism, and so help me, Gavin, if I hear one peep from _anyone_ that you so much as insulted that kid’s fashion sense, I will have you out on your ass. Do you hear me?”

“Yes sir,” Gavin said. This was not a time to protest or backtalk. Not that he had the words. If Connor had been human, Gavin would have still hated his smug little face, but he’d never have smashed it. He _never_ would have left him in Cunningham’s grasp. Connor had been metaphorically torn apart at Gavin’s hands, and he still took the time to save Gavin’s ass. “But can I…”

“Can you _what_?”

“Can I apologize?” Gavin asked quietly. “To him, I mean. I… fucked up. Real bad.”

“Feeling guilty now?”

Gavin said nothing, just nodded.

Fowler shook his head. “No. You may not approach him to apologize.”

“Why not?” Gavin demanded.

“Because it’s not for his benefit. It’s for yours. And he doesn’t need you forcing yourself on him _again_. If he approaches you, you can apologize. If he completely ignores you, you suck it the fuck up and figure out a way to work through your own damn guilt that doesn’t involve making him any more uncomfortable. If you approach him, even under peaceful pretenses, I will have your badge. You understand?”

“Yes sir.”

Fowler eyed him coldly, then gathered up the photos and tucked them back into the file. “Get back to work.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just because Sacrificial Lamb has ended does not mean everything is over! There is a growing community over at the Detroit: New ERA discord server having all kinds of fun. We gush over fanart, get spoilers for future New ERA stories, and send android chickens to their death. Come join the fun and fuck Gavin Reed! 
> 
> https://discord.gg/c6c2PZa


End file.
